MR. GODFREY followed the announcement of his name--as Mr. Godfrey does everything else--exactly
at the right time. He was not so close on the servant's heels as to startle us. He was not so far behind
as to cause us the double inconvenience of a pause and an open door. It is in the completeness of his
daily life that the true Christian appears. This dear man was very complete.

We both inquired after his health. We both asked him together whether he felt like himself again, after
his terrible adventure of the past week. With perfect tact, he contrived to answer us at the same moment.
Lady Verinder had his reply in words. I had his charming smile.

`What,' he cried, with infinite tenderness, `have I done to deserve all this sympathy? My dear aunt! my
dear Miss Clack! I have merely been mistaken for somebody else. I have only been blindfolded; I have
only been strangled; I have only been thrown flat on my back, on a very thin carpet, covering a particularly
hard floor. Just think how much worse it might have been! I might have been murdered; I might have
been robbed. What have I lost? Nothing but Nervous Force--which the law doesn't recognize as property; so
that, strictly speaking, I have lost nothing at all. If I could have had my own way, I would have kept my
adventure to myself--I shrink from all this fuss and publicity. But Mr. Luker made his injuries public,
and my injuries, as the necessary consequence, have been proclaimed in their turn. I have become
the property of the newspapers, until the gentle reader gets sick of the subject. I am very sick indeed of
it myself. May the gentle reader soon be like me! And how is dear Rachel? Still enjoying the gaieties
of London? So glad to hear it! Miss Clack, I need all your indulgence. I am sadly behind-hand with my
Committee Work and my dear Ladies. But I really do hope to look in at the Mother's-Small-Clothes next
week. Did you make cheering progress at Monday's Committee? Was the Board hopeful about future
prospects? And are we nicely off for Trousers?'

The heavenly gentleness of his smile made his apologies irresistible. The richness of his deep voice
added its own indescribable charm to the interesting business question which he had just addressed to
me. In truth, we were almost too nicely off for Trousers; we were quite overwhelmed by them. I was
just about to say so, when the door opened again, and an element of worldly disturbance entered the
room, in the person of Miss Verinder.

She approached dear Mr. Godfrey at a most unladylike rate of speed, with her hair shockingly untidy,
and her face, what I should call, unbecomingly flushed.

`I am charmed to see you, Godfrey,' she said, addressing him, I grieve to add, in the off-hand manner of
one young man talking to another. `I wish you had brought Mr. Luker with you. You and he (as long as
our present excitement lasts) are the two most interesting men in all London. It's morbid to say this; it's
unhealthy; it's all that a well-regulated mind like Miss Clack's most instinctively shudders at. Never mind
that. Tell me the whole of the Northumberland Street story directly. I know the newspapers have left
some of it out.'

Even dear Mr. Godfrey partakes of the fallen nature which we all inherit from Adam--it is a very small
share of our human legacy, but, alas! he has it. I confess it grieved me to see him take Rachel's hand
in both of his own hands, and lay it softly on the left side of his waistcoat. It was a direct encouragement
to her reckless way of talking, and her insolent reference to me.

`Dearest Rachel,' he said, in the same voice which had thrilled me when he spoke of our prospects and
our trousers, `the newspapers have told you everything--and they have told it much better than I can.'

`Godfrey thinks we all make too much of the matter,' my aunt remarked. `He has just been saying that he
doesn't care to speak of it.'